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Print, engraving, Naworth Castle, Brampton, Cumberland,
engraved by Sparrow, published by Samuel Hooper, Ludgate
Hill, London, 1774.
Included in The Antiquities of England and Wales, by Francis
Grose.
There is descriptive text on the rest of the page and the
reverse:-
NAWORTH CASTLE, CUMBERLAND.
PLATE II.
TRADITION says this castle was built by the Dacres, but by
which of them is not ascertained. One of them, Robert de
Dacre, from a quotation in Madox's History of the Exchequer,
seems to have been sheriff of Cumberland, 39th of Hen. 3d,
and another, Ranulph de Dacre, 14th of Ed. 1st, constable of
the tower.
THE first mention of this castle is in the reign of Richard
2d, when in the 18th of that reign, it appears from Madox's
Beronia, that William de Dacre, son and heir of Hugh de
Dacre, who was brother and heir of Ranulph de Dacre, held
it, with the manor of Irchington, to which it belonged; also
the manors of Burgh, near Sandes, Laysingby, and Farlham,
and other lands, by the service of one entire barony, and of
doing homage and fealty to the king, and of yielding to him
for cornage at his exchequer at Carlisle yearly, at the
feast of the assumption of St. Mary, 51s. 8d. By what
feofment, whether old or new, says Madox, does not appear;
neither in what king's reign Ranulph de Dacre, ancestor of
William here named, was feoff'd; but it is plain, some
ancestor under whom Ranulph claimed, was enfeft to hold by
barony.
IT continued in the family of the Dacres, till the year
1569, when on the 17th of May, according to Stowe, "George
Lord Dacre of Graystoke, sonne and heire of Thomas Lord
Dacre, being a child in yeere's, and then ward to Thomas
Lord Howard, Duke of Norfolk, was by a great mischaunce
slayne at Thetford, in the house of Sir Richard Falmenstone,
knight, by meane of a vauting horse of wood, standing within
the same house; upon which horse, as he meant to have
vauted, and the pinnes at the feet being not made sure, the
horse fell upon him, and bruised the brains out of his
head."
IN the January following, Leonard Dacre, Esq; of Horsley, in
the county of York, second son to Lord William Dacre of
Gilsland, being dissatisfied with a legal decision, by which
his nieces were adjudged to succeed to the estate of their
brother the Lord Dacre, whose tragical death was just here
related; he entered into a rebellion, with design to carry
off the Queen of Scots; but being disappointed by her
removal to Coventry, and having the command of 3000 men,
which he had been entrusted to raise for the queen's
service, he seized several castles, among which were those
of Greystock and Naworth; but being attacked and defeated by
Lord Hunsdon, at the head of the garrison of Berwick, he
fled to Falnders, where he died.
THIS castle next came into the possession of Lord William
Howard, the third son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, in right of
his wife Elizabeth, sister of George, the last Lord Dacre,
beforementioned. In 1607, when Cambden visited it, it was
under repair; and Bishop Gibson says, it was again repaired
and made fit for the reception of a family, by the Right
Hon. Charles Howard, great grandson to the Lord William
Howard beforementioned.
I SHALL here transcribe another description of this castle
and furniture, sent me by a gentleman who visited it anno
1732, which though it repeats many things mentioned in the
former account, yet it has also diverse circumstances worthy
observation, not there taken notice of.
"THIS is an ancient stone building; the front long, with a
square tower at each angle; then you enter a court. In the
noble hall, the pictures of Anglo-Saxon kings, and painted
on wooden square panels, make the ceiling, and part of the
wainscot at the further end of the room: they were brought
from Kirk-Oswald castle when that was demolished. The chapel
has a ceiling, and part of its wainscot of the same kind,
being paintiings of patriarchs, Jewish kings, &c. Here
is also painted a genealogy of the family from Fulcho, with
their arms. It has a floor of plaister of Paris, as have
some other of the rooms. Some of the apartments are very
large and spacious; the ceiling of one consists of small
square panels of wood, black and white interchangeably; the
white has two different carvings, the black is unwrought.
The very little Popish chapel is above stairs; the inside
work curiously carved and gilt; here are some small figures
of the passion, &c. Joining to this chapel is the
library, which has a good wooden roof; the books are old;
there are not above one or two of the manuscripts here now.
Vide Cat. Librorum M.S. Angl. & Hib. Tom 2d, p.14
&c.. The Earl of Carlisle never lives here, but at
Castle-Howard in Yorkshire. In the garden wall are stones
with Roman inscriptions, collected probably from the Picts
Wall; a general account of these stones is given in
Horsley's Britannia Romana."
CAMBDEN, who also mentions these stones, gives the following
copy of some of their inscriptions. One is,
IUL. AUG. DUO. . SILV. . UM
On another,
.I. O. M. ... II .AEL. DAC... C.P ... EST / URELIUS. FA. L.
S. TRIB. PET. VO. COS.
On a third,
LEG. II. AUG.
On a fourth,
COH. J. AEL. DAC. CORD. ... ALEC. PER. ...
THESE stones were, by the late Earl of Carlisle, given to
Sir Thomas Robinson, who married his siter, and were by him
removed to his Museum at Rooksby.
This view, which represents the entrance into the castle,
was drawn anno 1772.
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